New Releases for September 2024 – Historical Romance Books and Contemporary Romance Books

Rachel Weiss’s Group Chat by Lauren Appelbaum (2024)

Contemporary romance. Standalone novel. Rachel’s mother was all sorts of annoying, until I realized this was a Pride and Prejudice retelling and her mother is supposed to be the quintessential Mrs. Bennett. Rachel is an almost-thirty year old single woman living her best life ever with her best friends, a job she hates, and no relationship prospects in sight. Her meddling mother tries very hard to set her up with the new billionaire neighbor, Christopher, but she hates him immediately because of his tech job, his money, and the glowing recommendation from her mother. He’s basically the Darcy character here being all stern and serious and aloof. We spend most of the book with Rachel either thriving or flailing at life with misadventures in dating and various embarrassing encounters with Christopher. It’s light on the actual romance between Rachel and Christopher, since they rarely get any page time together. It leans more towards women’s fiction to me, with Rachel needing to find her footing in the world on her own, before realizing that maybe her mom was right about Christopher being perfect for her.

Advance ebook provided by Forever Books via NetGalley. Advance audiobook provided by Hachette Audio via NetGalley.

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The Marquess’ Quest for Love by Alexa Aston (2024)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 6 of the Strongs of Shadowcrest series. Byron is the dutiful second son of a marquess who is called back home from the army when his older brother dies in a carriage race and is now the new marquess. He’s all sorts of disappointed to learn what a terrible person his brother is and vows to do better; including possibly marrying the neighbor girl that his brother was engaged to (even though she’s terrible and he won’t be happy). When visiting his aunt and uncle in the Lake District, he meets Mirella, sister of a duke, who turns his head a bit, but not enough for him to shirk his duties. She’s equally enamoured of him, but doesn’t see him as marriage material since he keeps running hot and cold. They meet again several months later in the London Season, but he’s still determined to marry the neighbor. I enjoyed seeing Byron learn to let go of his staunch feelings of duty and responsibility as he opens himself up to the possibility of love. And he fits right in with the boisterous and loving Strong family.

Advance ebook provided by Dragonblade Publishing via NetGalley.

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The Duke’s Christmas Bride by Anna Bradley (2024)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 3 of the Drop Dead Dukes series. Grumpy duke Max swears revenge against the man who swindled his childhood home from his father in a card game, and when the man finally passes away, Max goes to reclaim the property. Except he finds that it is already occupied by the man’s adopted daughter Rose, who is in a dire financial situation, but refuses to leave what is effectively her own childhood home. And then it turns out the man’s will has left the house to both of them. Max gets the bright idea to manipulate Rose into marrying someone else so her new husband can turn over her half of the house, but Max and Rose are growing closer to each other instead. She’s definitely the sunshine to Max’s grump, and helps to thaw his icy feelings. Fluffy, easy read.

Advance ebook provided by Kensington Books via NetGalley.

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I Will Steal You the Stars by Alivia Fleur (2024)

Historical romance. Victorian-era England. Part of the Scandalous Daughters of Duke Street series. Quick novella with two former childhood friends who met at an orphanage. Enzo is the local crime boss in the slums who is visited by old friend Mina who needs help stealing her wages from the fancy house where she was dismissed. In the course of teaming up together, they reconnect and rekindle their affection for each other. Enzo is generally conflicted about rising above his current station, but also tries to encourage Mina to reach beyond her life working as a maid. It’s a quick low-angst sort of romance here and it was nice to see working class main characters.

Advance ebook provided by Alivia Fleur via BookSirens.

The Viscount’s Curvy Prize by Viola Grey (2024)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Part of the Curves and Cravats series. Quick and steamy novella. Painter’s daughter Emmaline is tasked with painting the portrait of the serious and stern viscount, Benedict. He’s pretty much distracted by his attraction to her from Day 1 and hesitant to do anything about it because of the power imbalance between them. She has no idea that he’s feeling all these things and is all sorts of confused when he kisses her one day, and then is cold and cordial the next day. And despite the struggle the serious Benedict seems to be facing, he does the right and honorable thing once he realizes he loves Emmaline.

Advance ebook provided by Viola Grey.

The Worst Duke in London by Amalie Howard (2024)

Historical romance. Victorian-era England. Book 3 of the Taming of the Dukes series. Evangeline is a social outcast and prefers country life with her animal shelter, but her younger sister Viola is itching for a London Season. Their father insists that Viola is only allowed to go if Evangeline does too. Viola’s terrible suitor decides to use the debt he’s owed by the destitute duke, Gage, to tell him to convince and distract Evangeline. It’s a messy deal that gets even messier when Gage turns out to actually like Evangeline’s outspoken personality. Also, these two people are attracted to each other to the point of distraction, and Evangeline is the one to propose a scandalous affair. Super steamy flirty banter. Loved it.

Advance ebook provided by Forever Books via NetGalley. Audiobook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

The Finest Print by Erin Langston (2024)

Historical romance. Victorian-era England. Standalone novel. We get the next generation of Sinclairs here, with Belle, the daughter of Gavin and Emilia (from Some Winter’s Evening). Belle is a writer of a gory novels and has become somewhat of a spinster after breaking her engagement to a Scotland Yard inspector several years ago. She has a chance meeting with Ethan, newly from America, who has inherited his uncle’s indebted print shop. It’s a perfect fit because she has stories and he has the equipment to print it. They start a weekly printing of Belle’s writing, hoping to recoup the money to pay off Ethan’s uncle’s debts. I loved the fated meeting of these two, how perfectly they suit each other’s needs, and the respect that Ethan has for Belle’s work. The romance here was soft and sensible and soothing in all the best ways. It’s clear these two have an equal partnership and make a great team. Belle’s family is strong and supportive, just as we would expect them to be, and I also enjoyed the found family of the print shop crew. Loved it.

Advance ebook provided by Erin Langston.

My Vampire Plus-One by Jenna Levine (2024)

Paranormal romance. Book 2 of the My Vampires series. Fun and hilarious story. Please don’t take this book too seriously. Amelia’s got a very pushy family that has made her resort to making up a fake boyfriend to bring to her cousin’s wedding. Luckily, she has just happened to run into a random stranger who owes her a favor. Reginald has major golden retriever vibes and he’s basically the best fake boyfriend ever, while Amelia totally thought he was joking about being a vampire. There’s a lot of comedic miscommunication here, but Amelia soon warms up to the idea of real-dating a real-vampire. We also get to revisit Frederick and Cassie from Book 1 and see where they are relationship-wise. Oh, and Reginald is sort of on the run from a group who is seeking vengeance for something that Reginald didn’t even do a hundred years ago.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby. Advance audiobook provided by Penguin Random House Audio.

The Trouble with Inventing a Viscount by Vivienne Lorret (2024)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 2 of the Liars’ Club series. Gambling swindler pretends to be a viscount in order to blackmail his fake fiancee. A year ago, Honoria won the money in a card game that Oscar needed to pay off his violent creditor and runs off. Oscar tracks her down in her tiny country village and pretends to be the man that she’s betrothed to until he can convince her to give him the money. There’s all sorts of chaos and drama because Honoria’s family is quirky and meddlesome and Oscar’s not-family is not convinced of his identity and wants to get rid of him. But Oscar and Honoria spend more time together and are very much attracted to each other, and maybe Oscar is actually a good guy underneath all of the swindling behavior. Things get messier when it seems that someone is out to endanger Oscar’s life and Honoria is trying her best to protect him and get rid of him. Aside from all the chaos are the little clues that maybe Oscar might actually have a connection to the family that he’s pretending to be a part of, which I always love to see.

Advance ebook provided by Avon Books via NetGalley.

A Jingle Bell Mingle by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone (2024)

Contemporary romance. Book 3 of the Christmas Notch series. We’re at the wedding of Bee and Nolan (from Book 1) and start with a second one night stand for adult film actor Sunny and widowed boy-band member Isaac. And then Sunny’s motel room floods and she ends up staying at Isaac’s mansion while she’s working on a screenplay. Meanwhile Isaac needs to finish writing one more album to fulfill his contract with his music studio and the dead wife card just isn’t working anymore. They peacefully cohabitate with Sunny’s cantankerous cat and try really hard not to fall in love. High steam, high chaos, and high emotion here with both Sunny and Isaac dealing with their separate feelings of grief and figuring out how to move on with their adult lives.

Advance ebook provided by Avon Books via NetGalley. Audiobook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

The One With the Duke’s Curvy Bride by Eliana Piers (2024)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Part of the Curves and Cravats series. Super quick little tiny novella with childhood friends Philomena and Henry. They’re all at a house party that Henry’s mother is throwing to find him a wife, and Philomena is not one of the selections. When Philomena and Henry are stuck in the library together, he starts to see her in a new and attractive light, but she doesn’t believe that he returns her longstanding feelings. It all wraps up fairly quickly when he declares his intentions for her. Bonus, they get stuck in a cottage together during a rainstorm.

Advance ebook provided by Eliana Piers.

Prime Time Romance by Kate Robb (2024)

Contemporary romance. Standalone novel. Super fun mashup on Pleasantville and Dawson’s Creek with tons and tons of Easter eggs and references to teen dramas of yesteryear. Brynn is having a rough time of things being recently divorced, having shallow friendships, and going on the worst first dates ever. She’d rather be sitting at home on the couch re-watching her favorite TV show, even though it ended on a cliffhanger and the main character did not end up with the dreamboat crush. And somehow, she and her roommate Josh wake up in the fictional TV world and are tasked with settings things to rights. Except the dreamboat crush is not what he seems and Brynn ends up growing feelings for Josh instead, changing the narrative of the fictional town. It’s fun and steamy and chaotic in all the best ways. I had so much fun listening to this audiobook and loved all the little callouts to the teen shows I used to love.

Advance ebook provided by Dial Press via NetGalley. Advance audiobook provided by Penguin Random House Audio.

How Her Curves Won the West by Wynter Ryan (2024)

Historical romance. American West. Part of the Curves and Cravats series. Super quick novella. Like, a super small snack you can read in an hour. Annabelle runs the local boarding house with three of her friends (are they getting their own books?) and the town is trying to deter a criminal from hanging around. They decide to ask the local exiled grumpy duke for help and send Annabelle as the messenger. Sin’s been attracted to Annabelle since she arrived in town so he agrees to help her in exchange for three nights in bed with him. Well, that’s no sacrifice for her since she’s attracted to him too. It’s all a low-angst, quick resolution to the thug problem, followed by true love’s happily ever after.

Advance ebook provided by Wynter Ryan.

The Deed with the Duke by Sri Savita (2024)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Part of the Cards of Passions series. Novella-length story of a property dispute that gets resolved fairly quickly. Raaz is looking for the deed to a beloved family cottage, shows up there, and finds it occupied by Camelia, who won the cottage in a card game. It all looks legal, so he concedes, but also sticks around to help her fix up the place. In doing so, they also decide on a temporary affair with each other, since they know anything more permanent won’t work since he’s a duke and she’s not duchess material. But they clearly connect on a much deeper level than just physical attraction, so they’re got to figure out how to make it work. For being such a short book, the connection and softness between the characters is impressive. Plus we get a delightful bathtub scene where they bare their secrets.

Advance ebook provided by Sri Savita.

No One Does It Like You by Katie Shepard (2024)

Contemporary romance. Standalone novel. Second chance romance with lots of comedy. Tom and Rose have been divorced for about ten years, and he leaves her a voicemail before heroically rescuing a man from a flood during a hurricane. She does not receive that voicemail until about three months after that hurricane and decides she’ll take him up on the offer to make things up to her when she needs help fixing up her aunt’s inn on Martha’s Vineyard. He thinks she wants to get back together; she really just wanted help fixing the inn. It’s a slew of miscommunication and mixed signals, and then Tom’s famous co-star comes to help and brings with him a bunch of fans and groupies. Somehow this wacky group of people come together and are surprisingly very productive. But Tom and Rose still have terrible communication skills, with Rose not being clear with what she wants, and Tom being generally oblivious to her feelings. It’s kind of a mess and I’m not sure their core issues are resolved, but the friends and fans are fun to read and make for funny moments.

Ebook borrowed from my local library via Libby. Advance audiobook provided by Penguin Random House Audio.

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Part of the Curves and Cravats series. Quick steamy novella. Widow Sophie is ready to rejoin society and look for an affair. She’s staying with her best friend and her husband for the season, and the husband’s best friend Sin is also back in town after an extended stay away. It’s lust at first sight for Sophie and Sin, even though her friend is trying to warn her away because of Sin’s rakish reputation. But he’s totally serious about her since he’s the heir to a marquess and needs to start settling down. This whole book is fun and quick and steamy and perfect for when you just need a couple of hours of fluff.

Advance ebook provided by Steffy Smith.

Three Sins and a Scoundrel by Tracy Sumner (2024)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 6 of the Duchess Society series. We finally get the backstory for the suspiciously proper Jasper Noble. We first met Jasper in an earlier book in the series, where it seemed like he was a low-born rookery thug, but has suspicious slips of etiquette, suggesting that he may have a higher class upbringing. We find out here that he is actually Crispin Sinclair, the son of a lowly baron who had his heart broken when his childhood friend and neighbor, Cece, marries a decrepit old earl. Crispin re-invents himself when he’s working as a spy for the crown and becomes Jasper in the process, leaving his old life completely behind. It’s almost twenty years later now, Cece is widowed, and she’s coming to London to get her man back. Except she’s fumbling all over the place and even I’m not sure what it is that she wants. Jasper’s doing his best to protect his heart and feelings and Cece is saying she’s asking for an affair, but she might also be amenable to more. I enjoyed seeing the bickering and flirting and steam between these two, plus all the advice Jasper’s friends are trying to give him. Excellent conclusion to the series.

Advance ebook provided by Tracy Sumner.